Auburn's Tyler Beede Vanderbilt ace

Thursday

Mar 21, 2013 at 6:00 AM

For the first time in his life, Tyler Beede didn't dominate on the mound last season. Now that the Vanderbilt right-hander looks back on it, he's convinced that his troubles on and off the field helped make him a better pitcher.

By Bill Doyle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

For the first time in his life, Tyler Beede didn't dominate on the mound last season.

Now that the Vanderbilt right-hander looks back on it, he's convinced that his troubles on and off the field helped make him a better pitcher.

Beede, 19, of Auburn took some criticism for deciding to attend Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., instead of accepting a $2.5 million offer from Toronto after the Blue Jays drafted him with the 21st pick in 2011.

After becoming the only 2011 first-round pick not to sign, Beede was 1-5 with a 4.52 earned run average, allowing 78 hits and 32 walks in 71-1/3 innings as a freshman last year.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Beede has been a much better pitcher as a sophomore, however. He's 5-0 with a team-best 0.84 ERA for the No. 2 ranked Commodores, who took a 19-2 record into Wednesday's game at Middle Tennessee. In 32 innings, he has allowed 16 hits, 3 earned runs and 21 walks while fanning 31.

Those are the kinds of stats that Beede is more used to compiling. In two years with Auburn High, he went 12-1 with 169 strikeouts in 92 innings and helped the Rockets win a 2009 state title. Then he was 14-1 with an 0.80 ERA and 189 strikeouts in 96-1/3 innings over two seasons for Lawrence Academy in Groton.

“I think it's all confidence,” Beede said. “Last year I went through some adversity and had some failures that I haven't had really before. Going into it, I didn't know what to expect. SEC (Southeastern Conference) baseball is tough competition. You prepare yourself mentally, but you haven't gone through it yet. Just going through those experiences and getting through the adversity and failure really prepared me and motivated me to get better this year.”

Beede wishes he handled it better when some social media sites took him to task for passing up the $2.5 million offer when Toronto wouldn't give him the $3.5 million he wanted.

“People have their opinions,” he said, “and they're entitled to them. It's just whether you pay attention to them or not. I was young. I looked at the social media and that was something I shouldn't have done. I didn't really let it get to me, but it's in the back of your head. That goes back to overthinking things and letting the outside things distract you. I've done a better job of really not paying attention to what people have to say.”

“Tyler may have struggled,” Vanderbilt's first-year pitching coach Scott Brown said, “with the expectations a little bit last year being the only first-round pick not to sign, but he's worked hard and our staff has worked hard to remove those expectations and treat him as a normal college baseball player that's just trying to improve each day.”

Beede took last summer off from baseball and gained 20 pounds of muscle while working out at Cressey Performance in Hudson. This school year, he's done a better job of adjusting to his class schedule. He said his classes in poetry and philosophy have helped him become a better rapper.

Beede is scheduled to start Saturday night at home against Florida. His father Walter plans to make the six-hour drive from his home in Louisiana as he does for each home game he pitches, and his mother, Cheryl Rivers, will travel from Auburn.

Last Saturday, he no-hit Auburn University for 6-1/3 innings and left after allowing two hits in the seventh in an 8-1 victory. Beede battled all game to overcome six walks.

“The thing I was most impressed about him,” Brown said, “was the way he attacked the hitters even though he was struggling to command the strike zone. He had to pitch out of numerous self-induced jams and he just kept competing.”

Beede admitted that as a resident of Auburn, Mass., he got a kick out pitching in Auburn, Ala.

“It was kind of funny,” he said. “It was kind of cool. I pretended I was going back like I was going back home for a second.”

Beede did not wear one of his old Auburn High T-shirts under his baseball uniform that day.

“Now that I think about it, I probably should have,” he said. “That would have been cool, but I didn't have one.”

Brown has worked with Beede to become more aggressive.

“I want him to be in the attack mode,” Brown said, “to have the mentality of a fighter, a boxer. Get on top of people. Work in good pace. He's bought into that. That's leading to a little more success this year than last year. Less thinking, more reacting.”

Brown understood where Beede needed to improve after speaking with Derek Johnson, last year's Vanderbilt pitching coach who left to become pitching coordinator for the Cubs' farm system.

“He kind of overanalyzed each pitch,” Brown said, “and wanted to throw a perfect pitch each pitch. We all know, for us who have been up there on that mound, you're not capable of doing that every time. We strive for that, but you have to have the ability to get rid of it and move on to the next one and just win the next pitch and that's what he's doing a better job of this year.”

“I try not to be too picky,” Beede said, “and trust my stuff in the zone and throw competitive pitches. When you start to be too picky and you try to make great pitches, you start throwing balls outside the zone, start walking people and you're not letting your defense play. You've got to keep the pace, keep the tempo of the game going in the right direction.”

Beede rooms with Andover's Mike Yastrzemski, who is hitting .310 and plays right field for Vanderbilt. He's the grandson of Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski. Beede is tied for the team lead in victories with another Massachusetts resident, junior left-hander Kevin Ziomek (5-0) of Amherst.

Brown said Beede's fastball ranges between 90 and 95 miles an hour, but he can also get hitters out with his two-seam fastball, changeup and breaking ball.

“His command of the two-seam fastball,” Brown said, “has probably improved the most over the course of the last three months. We've spent some time working on that and getting some late action in the zone, which has certainly helped him miss some barrels.”

The Commodores have their sights set on reaching the College World Series for the second time in three years.

“We know we have the experience,” Beede said, “we know we have the talent and we're just getting better each week. If we keep doing that, I think our chances are very good to make it that far.”

Beede isn't eligible to be drafted again until after his junior season next year. If he keeps pitching the way he has this season, he could go in the first round again.

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.

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